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Canada deports more than 10,000 people every year, including some to states with “atrocious human rights records,” according to newly released figures obtained by the Star.

While the vast majority of
people are deported to countries in Europe
and the Americas, refugees who’ve been denied asylum continue to be sent to war-torn places like Iraq and Afghanistan as well as states with repressive regimes like North Korea and Eritrea, records provided by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) show.

“I think this issue of deporting people to countries with atrocious human rights records is even more serious now than a few years ago,” said Richard Goldman, co-ordinator of the Committee to Aid Refugees, after viewing the statistics. “This is because changes introduced in 2012 have led to a much-accelerated refugee system with many people having no right of appeal. Consequently, there are fewer checks and balances to ensure that people are not sent back to situations of abuse in such countries.”

Records prepared by the CBSA show that between the beginning of 2004 and the end of June this year, 148,057 people were deported, more than 70 per cent of whom were failed refugee claimants.

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The number of rejected refugees deported each year grew from around 8,000 per year a decade ago to more than 13,000 in 2012. In 2013, the number fell back to 10,505.

In the last several years, deportations have also been temporarily halted to Gaza in Palestine, Mali, certain regions in Somalia, Syria and the Central African Republic, wrote CBSA spokesperson Pierre Deveau in an email. Yet, records show that between 8 and 37 people have been deported to these countries after their bans were brought into place.

“The moratorium is lifted even with a simple, low-level criminal conviction,” said Goldman, who has seen cases where someone faced deportation to a moratorium country due to a shoplifting conviction. “It’s not like we even need to argue the general principle — these countries are on the list and yet we send people there anyway.”

But the real problem with the moratorium list, Goldman says, is that it’s too short.

“There are a number of countries that really deserve to be under moratorium. For example, Eritrea — it’s certainly one of the more shocking ones, when we hear stories of forced conscription, slave-labour conditions, horrible detention and so on,” he said.

In addition to the people sent to the moratorium countries, CBSA records show that almost 250 people were deported to Eritrea, North Korea, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and South Sudan.

Between the moratorium countries, those with temporary bans and the non-moratorium countries, Canada has deported more than 1,000 people to 16 of the most dangerous countries in the world.

These countries include the eight lowest-ranked states on the Global Peace Index, which measures war, crime, violence, terrorism and access to firearms across the world.

“The prevailing human rights situation is so grave in some of these countries, the very real possibility that (deportees) would be at risk would be a very high one,” said Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, after viewing the statistics.

“There are countries on this list where there is widespread insecurity and armed conflict. We’ve got Somalia on the list and Syria,” Neve said. “There are other countries on this list where there are deeply entrenched patterns of widespread repression. Eritrea would be a good example. And there are countries where people who have been outside the country and are being sent back are viewed with suspicion, like North Korea.”

“The government reserves the right to carry out deportations if a person has a criminal record,” said Neve. “That doesn’t mean that those deportations are in conformity with international law because there are some human rights protections that are absolute.”

“If you’re going to be gunned down by a death squad or if you’re going to be abducted by a secret police unit and disappear into a prison system without ever going through any kind of legal process — (international law) includes the protection against being deported to face that risk,” he said.

Deportations of failed refugee claimants from Canada (2004-June 2014)

Countries with a deportation moratorium

Afghanistan 52

Democratic Republic of the Congo 55

Haiti 262

Iraq 81

Zimbabwe 69

Countries with temporary deportation bans

Somalia 37

Mali 63

Syria 138

Palestinian territories (Gaza Strip and West Bank) 26

Central African Republic 4

Countries with no deportation ban

Eritrea 24

North Korea 10

Libya 131

Yemen 52

South Sudan 1

Sudan 30

Source: CBSA

Correction - August 28, 2014:
This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Richard Goldman has seen refugees deported after a shoplifting conviction.

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